


A Birthday Wish

by marty_mcfly_jr



Series: The Hero [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:14:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25121455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marty_mcfly_jr/pseuds/marty_mcfly_jr
Summary: Morraine convinced Zeus to let Rumple live after he made a great sacrifice.Rumple is not sure he could trust Zeus.“Rumple,” Morraine said, when he was with them again, “You said you want to see your family and be with them. You said it, right?”
Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Henry Mills & Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Series: The Hero [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1039085
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	A Birthday Wish

"I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in anything you have to sell.”

Zeus was astonished at Rumple’s stubbornness. “Don’t you _want_ to see your family? Be with them?”

Rumple scoffed, “of course I do. What does it matter to _you_?”

“I can give you what you want,” Zeus insisted.

”I have everything I want,” he said leaning back and eyeing the two people sitting across from him, in his heavenly hovel. He was not going to let anyone trick him into anything. Drumming his fingers on the table between them, and narrowing his eyes, he knew he will not be tempted.

“You’re dead,” Zeus pointed out.

“Why don’t you trust him?” The old woman spoke up.

“And who are you?” Rumple asked, looking at the woman.

“Oh,” the wrinkled woman said, as if it suddenly occured to her, “you wouldn’t recognize me, of course. I’m Morraine. Morraine of the frontlands. I was only a little girl when-“

“Oh, yes! Of course I remember you. Baelfire’s friend,” he said pointing at her playfully.

She smiled, “I saw him yesterday when I looked through the Window. “

“Ah.” Rumple said looking a little regretful.

“The Window” was almost exactly what it sounded like. People in the afterlife were able to see into the land of the living, but only a glimpse and only if they really deserved it. Rumple was so sure that he didn’t even deserve to _be_ in this comfortable afterlife, that he never even thought to _ask_ if he could look through the Window.

“Is Balefire OK?” Rumple whispered wistfully.

“Of course he is. Because you made sure of it.”

“Did you see-“

“He’s married. They recently had a baby.”

Rumple nodded.

“Do you want to see for yourself?” Zeus asked softly.

Rumple swallowed and blinked his eyes a few times before turning to Zeus contentiously, and asked, “you found your cue to pounce, now?”

“I can bring the Window here,” Zeus said, not taking the hostility personally. As he said it he waved his hand and a square opened right over the table.

Rumple couldn’t help but look through it. He saw Neal say something funny and Henry giggle at it. Belle was chasing Goldilocks around the house and Emma was rocking a newborn baby in a bassinet. Those visions lasted barely a second but they were like a breath of fresh air. Being dead, he didn’t realize how much he missed fresh air.

When the window closed, Rumple looked at Zeus suspiciously. He knew that Zeus was very aware of his sudden longing.

Zeus opened his mouth to speak, but Rumple beat him to it.

“No.” He said, and looked levelly at them, expressionless.

“Why not?”

“I have everything I ever wanted.”

"Let's see..." Zeus raised his hand and Rumple’s consciousness drifted out of the room. Zeus then took something out of Rumple’s unconscious form's heart and examined it.

“What are you _doing_ to him?!” Morraine asked fearfully.

“It looks like your friend, Rumple, is right. We really can’t help him.”

“What do you mean?”

Zeus showed Morraine the shiny thing that he took out of Rumple’s heart. “He really has everything. I thought that if I find out what he _really_ wants, I can have a way to convince him. I was hoping to see something like, being with a true love, or being admired, or loved, or even just being remembered by someone important to him, would give me some leverage." Zeus shook his head. "This,” he pointed at the thing he was holding, “can show me his deepest desire, and do you know what that is?”

Morraine shook her head.

“His deepest desire is to keep his family safe. I checked his worst fear too.”

Morraine gasped. “Don’t threaten him!”

“I can’t. His worst fear is that someone he loves would be hurt. But everyone he loves is safe and sound,” he glanced sideways at rumple’s unconscious form, “because he did the impossible and ensured the safety of the world.”

“But, he _can_ be happy to be with his true love, and family. It won’t hurt if he’s admired and thanked by those he saved… “

Zeus shook his head. “You heard him. He doesn’t need us. He wasn’t lying.” Zeus, then, waved his hand to bring Rumple’s consciousness back.

“Rumple,” Morraine said, when he was with them again, “You said you want to see your family and be with them. You said it, right?”

“But I know I can’t, Morraine. Do _you_ have any… descendents? Wouldn’t you want to speak to them? But you know you can’t. Why is it different for me?”

“Because you _can_!”

“Why?”

“Zeus _told_ you-“

“Oh, right Henry’s birthday wish.” Rumple chuckled. “Do you think my grandson is the only grandchild to ever wish for his grandparent to be at his birthday? Why should I believe that this is enough to bring me back to life? I’m not stupid, you know. I know the price for resurrecting even the Dark One is heavier than anyone can bear.”

“There _is_ no Dark One-”

“Then resurrecting a simple man like me? Sorry. I don’t even want to know the price for that.”

“There’s no price, Rumple,” Zeus sighed.

“I’ve been a business man for more than five lifetimes. _Everything_ comes with a price. Going back and living happily with my family? I want it, yes, I want it very much. But I don’t want to be tricked into having someone pay for it.”

“Rumple,” Zeus said, “the sacrifice you made, the price you had to pay to save the world, didn’t it require you to stay in Neverland and be tortured _for all eternity_?”

Oh.

So this was where it was going.

Rumple closed his eyes. Zeus wanted him to live, because he was still supposed to be paying the price… He read all the books. He knew that he had to be in a hell together with all the villains of the world. He knew that they were to be allowed to hurt him in any way they wanted, and he knew it was supposed to be forever… <@/p>

But he was here, in The Good Place in the afterlife, resting in peace…

When Rumple spoke, he tried to sound casual, not like someone in the verge of hysteria. “Maybe- m-maybe I can just go back to the underworld. They can keep torturing me there. Please? A living body is an added burden- I mean, it’s not necessary, is it? They can still hurt me in death, p-please… A living body will give them more opportunity to h-hurt me in- in ways that I-” Rumple looked at Zeus, but he couldn’t tell from his expression if his pleas were falling on deaf ears or not. “But," he continued in a small voice, "if I must, I guess I have no ch-choice. A price is a price and if their safety depends on it…”

Zeus and Morraine were gaping at him, completely lost for words. When they saw him close his eyes, they mistook it for his contemplating the message that Zeus was trying to convey by saying it: that a price doesn’t always have to be paid in full. Just like he didn’t end up spending eternity being tortured and got lucky once, (“lucky” that he was able to escape the torture by dying and going to a better place than the underworld) he could get lucky again.

But all _he_ heard was, a price was still due. Did this man _never_ catch a break?

Zeus stood up and gripped Rumple by his arms. “Stop,” he said.

Rumple lifted his head and squinted his eyes because he was too afraid to be seen daring to look at Zeus, as the latter gently shook him.

“Stop,” Zeus said again, “you do not have to go back to being tortured. The world is safe. You saved it. It’s over. Okay? You got lucky and now you’re here. It was just dumb luck. No one’s safety depends on your suffering. It’s okay.”

"Wh- what," Rumple was not buying anything Zeus said. It sounded too easy, too... _unrealistic_ from Rumple's experience. He was utterly confused. "What about the price?"

"In your business, when you sold wool thread, didn't it ever happen that people owed you money but never paid up? You never sold thread and only got _some_ of the payment? They still had the tread. The world that you saved is still okay."

Rumple understood. It was OK. He didn't need to keep paying... 

He looked away and nodded vigorously, not wanting them to see the rollercoaster of emotions that were dizzying him and watering his eyes

by the time Rumple was calm enough to be content, Zeus didn’t know how to bring up his offer again.


End file.
